Gee continues meetings over Orange Linen Services

The Health Services Union (HSU) says there is likely to be more industrial action over concerns about job cuts at Orange's Linen Service.

The union says the state government's HealthShare is looking at sending laundry from the Prince of Wales Hospital, which currently comes to Orange, to Sydney or Newcastle.

At least 30 people took part in stop work meetings in Orange yesterday.

Gerard Hayes from the HSU says it is not yet known what impact the reduction will have on local jobs.

"Oh look that's part of the frustration at the moment," he said.

"We're not prepared to sit by and let people in rural centres, particularly Orange, be under-employed or unemployed.

"We're going to fight this every step of the way.

"But where this starts and where this finishes nobody really knows at the moment, well not from our perspective."

The Member for Orange Andrew Gee says he is disappointed in both HealthShare and the Health Services Union for not keeping him better informed.

He says both groups have known about the proposal for at least a week.

Mr Gee says he will meet senior HealthShare management at Parliament House today to discuss the proposal, as questions were not answered at meetings yesterday.

"I tried to gauge from HealthShare exactly how much is going to be saved by putting the business with Newcastle or Parramatta," he said.

"I wasn't able to get that information out of them, they weren't able to tell me how less competitive Orange actually is or how many jobs would be affected in Orange so at the moment there're still too many unanswered questions."

Mr Gee says the state government needs to consider alternatives to cutting the workload at Orange's Linen Service.

"Whether all steps have been taken to keep the Prince of Wales business in Orange and whether all of those avenues have been exhausted and whether there are ways in which that business can be retained?," he said.

"At the moment I'm not convinced that all avenues have actually been exhausted.

"What they have told me is that they laundry will remain open.

"There are no plans to close the linen service in Orange."

The Health Services Union says the Prince of Wales Hospital contract makes up 50 per cent of the facility's work load.

Mr Hayes says it is likely industrial action will continue.

"Oh look I would expect it will, until we can get some kind of guarantee that members at Orange will be looked after in terms of work we are not prepared to let these processes go forward," he said.

"They are banding together at this point in time, they are formulating what long term position they will take in relation to this matter."